Essex's Love Your Bus Two: 15 service improvements across 11 bus routes
Central Connect (part of Transport Made Simple), Essex’s largest independently owned bus operator, are enhancing eleven bus routes across the county this summer using Department for Transport funding, administered through Essex County Council’s Love Your Bus Two grant scheme. Love Your Bus is a fund designed to give parish and town councils a direct hand in shaping the bus services their communities depend on.
Local partners across the county have secured around £680,000 to deliver 15 service enhancements on 11 routes. The improvements range from extra evening journeys and restored weekend services to ticket price reductions and route extensions where they’re needed most.
Every scheme was shaped by a local parish or town council. TMS’s role was to support them through the design and bidding process, and to deliver the resulting services on the network. Over the last six months, TMS Partnerships Lead Charlie Poulter reached out to, and worked with, multiple parishes across Essex to translate their priorities into deliverable schemes, and supported them through the bidding process. This support and partnership is unique among bus operators, as TMS’ dedicated partnerships team received praise from Essex County Council and Parish and Town Councils for their proactive outreach and support before, during, and after the bidding process, this support enabled bidding partners to win over 75% of the total award pool, which was increased from £500k to £895k due to the unexpectedly high number of strong applications.
New and improved services will start rolling out this summer. Central Connect will be sharing route-by-route information through digital channels and printed media as each scheme goes live.
A huge thank you to every parish and town council that communicated their priorities, and to Essex County Council for backing this innovative scheme. This is what our partnership-focused approach to delivery looks like in action: working closely with passengers and their representatives to deliver the network they need most.